One of Duran’s strengths was his ability to pin his opponents against the ropes. By the time the second round started, Duran was successfully implementing this technique on Leonard.
He was doing so, whilst landing tight body shots and was punishing Leonard at every opportunity. Duran’s strategy was to consume Leonard’s energy and slow down his energy for his later rounds, thus he kept Leonard engaged throughout the second round.
Duran’s strategy paid off as it didn’t take him 5 rounds, instead, he was able to nail Leonard mid-way through the second round. Duran landed a power left hook which knocked Leonard backwards.
Because of Duran’s preference for rushing and charging on his opponents, they became highly reactive to his level-changes. We’ve already seen that in our Duran case study.
Duran was one of the only fighters at that time who could use his ahead along with level change with a feint (a technique quite popular in the MMA world today). Yet, again, Leonard survived the round, barely.
It took Leonard 3 more rounds to get into the match. Till then, it was all Duran showcasing his unique wrestling and boxing combinations. Pinning Leonard towards the rope, changing levels, throwing combinations.
At one point in the third round, Leonard was on the ropes for over 30 seconds and took 17 punches without returning a single punch. Leonard often used his arms and shoulders to knock his opponents off-balance.
But with Duran’s brilliant head movement, he was able to keep himself safe and setup new angles to attack. This technique worked brilliantly for Duran as he mostly targeted the liver of his opponents.